It was Forrest Gump who famously said “Life is like a box of chocolates;
you never know what you’re going to get”. Which is clearly nonsense as
the list of contents is on the box. And even if it’s not, there’s a
contents sheet inside. Anyone who buys a box of chocolates at random is
obviously either blind or a Grade-1 moron. I raise the possibility of
unknown or potentially unpleasant content as we at Polyhedron Collider
regularly are sent pre-production, pre-kickstarter or prototype games to
assess, review, cast judgement upon and playtest ahead of any proposed
release. This process does yield some genuinely good games, some games
that have a great idea, but need a bit of improvement plus a spit and
polish and then there are the games that, like an albino Vampire, should
never see the light of day. Thankfully the games in the latter category
are, like the coffee cream in the box of Terry’s All Gold, relatively
few and far between because most designers don’t want to release turds
rolled in glitter.

For those of you who are avid listeners of, or even simply tolerate the
Polyhedron Collider podcast, you’ll know that I’m a bit of a fan of
hefty Euros. Dice are something that I see as an addition to a game that
I can plan a strategy around rather than something that forms a core
mechanic. Jon and Steve feel differently on this matter. Or to put it
another way, they’re both wrong and need to go to their rooms and think
about what they’ve been doing with their lives. If you let him, “Dice
Chucker” Tudor would have a vat of the damn things in any game he could
lay his hands on, much to my consternation as I would throw those filthy
polyhedrons in the fire given half the chance, which is somewhat ironic
given our website name.

Reviewing a roleplaying game is not as straightforward as reviewing a
board game. A board game is restricted, penned in, but an RPG is open,
free to roam and do its own thing. Even if you and I play exactly the
same scenario within the same rule set we will no doubt have completely
different experiences. Since here at Polyhedron Collider we like to tell
you about the experience, it means that an RPG review will be even more
subjective than usual, but from our prospective of mainly being a board
game review site, FAITH makes thing a bit easier because it borrows a
lot of elements from board games and in the process makes a unique
setting and resolution mechanic.

Its time, yet again, for another dose of board gaming chat. Jon is off biking, or some other strenuous activity that Andy and Steve find far too much like hard work, and so they substitute a brummy for a redkneck as they are joined by James Hudson from Druid City Games. James tells us all about his new game, The Grimm Forest, and goes into detail about publishing, Kickstarter, distribution and Peppa Pig.

CMON (apparently, we’re not allowed to call them Cool Mini Or Not
anymore and must refer to them as See-Mon) have announced a new tabletop
miniatures war game based on George R R Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire
series.

A Song of Ice & Fire Fantasy Miniatures Game will
create a rank and file miniatures game based on the series made famous
by A Game of Thrones. Miniatures will use movement trays to manoeuvre
around the battlefield and all your favourite characters from the books
will no doubt make an appearance.

It’s a reasonably well known fact that certain kinds of media don’t
transfer well into other formats. In fact, in most cases, it’s like
introducing a baboon to the Dead Sea; you might think you’re doing
something novel, but in reality all you’re achieving is killing your
subject in a rather painful way. The transferral of Assassins Creed from
game to movie is evidence of that – turn a reasonably fast paced action
game into something akin to watching leaves grow on a dying tree,
without the benefit of brutal murder to calm the soul.

Let’s take
two recent releases for example – DOOM and Adrenaline. They’re both
based on ideas founded very firmly in video games – the FPS, or First
Person Shooter for those with only a vague awareness of the concept. As
an avid fan of video games, the first thing that came to mind when I saw
Adrenaline was Unreal Tournament – Deathmatch FPS in a futuristic
Sci-Fi environment. And it’s quite obvious where DOOM came from. DOOM,
obviously, although the progression from id Software’s DOOM to Quake was
a natural one. Given Quake and Unreal Tournament were rivals at the time, it seems
only fitting that they are compared in cardboard form too, if for no
other reason than to justify my place amongst Polyhedron Collider’s
review panel. Given the review panel currently consists of myself and
Steve, it’s not exactly like trying to fight my way onto the UK Olympic
track and field team, but I can’t be seen to be shirking my
responsibilities.

Way back in Days of Yore, when Settlers of Catan ruled the great board
game wildlands and Facebook was something aggressive librarians did to
unruly students, I was engrossed in video games. In fact, I’ve been a
fan of the digital smile machines since I was old enough to smash
fingers into keyboards and code my first POKE-based programs on my
trusty old Amstrad CPC-464. And yes, I realise I’m showing my age with
that one. Once games evolved to the point where we could shoot each
other over the internet, the idea of digital deathmatch has exploded,
mostly due to two games: Quake and Unreal Tournament.

Yes, I know there
were others, but let’s be honest, they were crap in comparison. I never
got into Quake as much as UT for reasons best known to myself and I
spent many an hour with the phrases “Head-Shot!”, “Double Kill!” and
“Ultra-Kill!” ringing in my ears. And probably my neighbour’s ears too
as the speakers were always turned up loud enough to wake Tutankhamun
and his extended family.

Its episode 20 and the Polyhedron Collider’s One-Year anniversary, so we thought we would take a break from our usual format and take time to discuss what are our very favourite games and, more importantly, why we like them.